[Comment] Offline: The X factor in the 2016 US election

October 27, 2015

The Lancet 386, 10004 (2015)

Author: Richard Horton

In all the extensive analysis about last week’s first Democratic debate in Las Vegas, one critical fact was surprisingly overlooked: health, and the broader determinants of health, were the central issues in the list of Democratic priorities offered to American voters. Health was directly addressed by several candidates. Bernie Sanders, a Senator from Vermont who has galvanised the base of the Democratic campaign by calling himself a “socialist”, opened his remarks by declaring that health is a right for every American citizen.